EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a new Village Media website devoted exclusively to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park
Premier Doug Ford is facing criticism for his comments about Ontarians receiving social assistance.
"I always say, if someone's on ODSP, I'll support them for life," Ford said last Monday at the Empire Club of Canada in Toronto, referring to the Ontario Disability Support Program. "What drives me crazy is people on Ontario Works — probably three, 400,000 — that are healthy."
The province has "never seen more jobs" available, Ford said.
"It really bothers me that we have healthy people sitting at home, collecting your hard-earned dollars. We need to encourage them to contribute back to the province and find gainful employment," he said.
Ontario Works provides short-term financial support for people looking for work. It's separate from ODSP, a long-term program for people with disabilities who can't work much or at all.
Provincial data show 393,886 people receiving Ontario Works as of January. The basic payment is $733/month and is adjusted based on family size and the age of any dependents.
One former caseworker of 11 years, and two people who have been through OW, described an "incredibly invasive" program that watches your every move — financially, professionally, and even romantically.
The intake appointment is three hours long, said the caseworker, to whom The Trillium granted anonymity to speak frankly.
Of her clients, about a third of whom were waiting for ODSP, which often takes years to be approved for, she said. But the majority were single parents, usually mothers fleeing an abusive relationship or whose husbands had left, she said.
"Nobody has a good life on Ontario Works. Period," she said.
Caseworkers go through every charge in an applicant's bank account and demand "embarrassing" letters from doctors and landlords, she said.
"We went into great detail about child support, spousal support. 'Who's the father of your children? Where are they living right now? When was the last time you had contact with them? How much have they paid you? Why don't they pay you? Do they work? Where do they work? Oh, by the way, here's a document that you have to find him and give to him,'" she said.
"It was awful ... doing that to people," she said, noting recipients have to re-qualify every month.
Two people who have been on OW compared it to a helicopter parent checking up on everything you do.
Once, after a job interview, "the employer called me and said ... 'They're calling me and asking me, how long were you here? Did you look presentable?'" said Mitchell Tremblay, who was on OW for seven years before being allowed to access ODSP, which he has used since. He spoke to The Trillium via a WiFi calling app since he can't afford a phone or plan.
"Just recently, I had to get a letter from my urologist," said Noah Fisk, a former OW recipient who has also moved to ODSP after being denied three times. "To prove to them, yep ... I was here at this location, mom and dad."
The caseworker said she was responsible for 150 "benefit units," which could each be a family or an individual. Every year, she said she had enough time to "really focus" on just one or two.
Despite all the headaches, OW and ODSP don't provide enough to live on, the three said.
Fisk said his assistance didn't cover the needles he needed for B12 shots — only the medicine. When a pharmacy quoted him $207 for a box of needles, his ODSP worker tried to pay for it by marking it as insulin. "But it got caught," Fisk said. It was only due to a home care nurse's delivery of a few needles, and a friend's help to pay for the pharmacy box, that he avoided hospitalization, he said.
Even getting the money can be dehumanizing, Tremblay said.
"I remember lining up on Yonge Street for the welfare cheque, and it was terrifying," he said, recalling getting pat-downs from police officers. "It's always been, you've been criminalized and infantilized and patted on the head. You're never given a seat at the table."
The program's austerity doesn't set people up for success, the caseworker said.
"Ontario Works only pays for emergency dental. So, emergency relief of pain only," she said. "So if you're missing all your teeth, that's too bad. How are you going to get a job when you're missing all your teeth? How successful are you going to be (in) an interview?"
Tremblay said he's applying for medical assistance in dying (MAiD) next year due to the "horrible conditions" he's facing as a result of his assistance rates.
Ford has cast suspicion on those receiving social assistance in the past.
"There's a certain group that are collecting ODSP that have part-time jobs, and if they keep the CERB going and their part-time job, they're actually up a few hundred dollars," he said in 2020, referring to federal pandemic benefits.
Last year, his government raised ODSP rates by five per cent — about $58 more per month for a single person. It also boosted the amount ODSP recipients can earn without clawbacks, from $200 to $1,000 per month, though payments after that were cut in half.
The case worker noted ODSP rates only recently caught up to where they were in the 1990s, before the Mike Harris government's cuts.
Several NDP MPPs reacted to Ford's comments on Twitter.
"Ontario deserves better than a Premier who looks down at those doing everything they can to try and make ends meet — something increasingly difficult with the low rates of OW & ODSP," Leader Marit Stiles said.
Ontario deserves better than a Premier who looks down at those doing everything they can to try and make ends meet—something increasingly difficult with the low rates of OW & ODSP.
— Marit Stiles (@maritstiles) June 20, 2023
Comments like this point out nothing except how out of touch the person saying them is. #onpoli https://t.co/daKBoglRfh
So...about those "people sitting at home collecting your hard-earned dollars". 👀#ONPoli https://t.co/N0VuoKLLuv pic.twitter.com/cvddLnGneN
— Dr. Jill Andrew, PhD (she/her) (@JILLSLASTWORD) June 20, 2023
The case worker said Ford should listen to the stories of social assistance recipients before passing judgment. But Fisk and Tremblay said they wouldn't have anything to say to him.
"You can't change a person like that," Fisk said.
Still, Tremblay said he wishes Ford could experience a sliver of what he's gone through.
"If he could go into one of those slummy houses I used to live (in) ... and have to sleep the night with a rat digging in the wall, and cockroaches all over your stove and looking at you while you're in the group shower," he sai. "If he had to do that for one day, I think, internally, in his own mind, he would realize some things ... but externally, I think he would keep up the same rhetoric. It's just cemented. And it's so hard for these people to unlearn or to even realize what they're doing to us."